Information reporting (1099) is becoming more complicated and the risks relating to non-compliance or inaccurate reporting are very high. The recent changes to FATCA, 1099 reporting, 1042 and 1042-S, foreign reporting and cost-basis reporting will affect your business, whether it’s a corporation, bank, trust department or wealth management firm. The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 enacted … Read More

The IRS has announced the intention to discontinue authorizing the high-low method for substantiating expenses incurred for lodging, meals and incidentals while traveling away from home. Announcement 2011-42 indicates that the IRS will no longer calculate and issue authorized per diem amounts for certain high-cost localities, to be used as the high-low alternative under the … Read More

Does Your Organization Need to Update Screening Programs? The Social Security Administration (SSA) has changed the way SSNs are issued. A new randomization of the assignment of SSNs went into effect on June 25, 2011. SSNs are now being assigned in a geographically random and non-sequential order. Thus, for SSNs assigned after June 25 of this … Read More

There’s always something cooking in Congress that has the potential of affecting Form 1099 reporting, and lately we are keeping an eye on the TAX GAP Act (S. 1289). Section 401 of the Act would require payers to backup withhold federal tax on several types of reportable payments if the IRS has not provided verification … Read More

W-8BENs have been around for just over 10 years and it has taken the select few that currently use them years of cumbersome administration – and some painful audit procedures – to truly understand how they need to be completed correctly. Now that we’ve finally grasped them, we are soon to be faced with not just one … Read More

FATCA Tax Withholding Phase-In Applies to Payments to Foreign Entities, in addition to Foreign Financial Institutions IRS Notice 2011-53, originally issued on July 14, was revised and reissued on July 25 to clarify that FATCA withholding will be phased in for payments to foreign entities, following the same extended schedule announced in the original Notice … Read More